CHAPTER XXIII_The reader's guide to the Encyclopaedia Britannica

FOR TEACHERS

[Sidenote: The Teacher’s “Factor of Safety”]

Every teacher has one pupil who tries harder than any of the others to

absorb knowledge, and yet is never content with the progress made, who

knows how hard the teacher works, and yet is never satisfied with the

teacher—and that pupil is the teacher’s self. For every other learner

there is a limit to the amount of knowledge to be acquired, but in the

case of the teacher a “standard” is supposed to indicate no more than an

indispensable minimum. When you are trying to make your pupils master a

text-book, the volume seems to contain a most stupendous mass of

learning, and when one of them asks you a question about the subject

with which the text-book deals, that particular point is sure to be one

that the text-book does not cover. What engineers call the “factor of

safety,” the margin by which the strength of materials must exceed the

stress it is expected to encounter, is, for the teacher, incalculable.

It is, of course, a favorite pastime of parents to send a child to

school primed with some question “to ask Teacher,” selecting an enigma

that has been for centuries a battle-ground for scholars or scientists.

And, apart from these malicious pitfalls, children themselves seem,

quite innocently, to hit upon questions of extraordinary difficulty. A

rebuff, a careless response, or, worst of all, an ingenious evasion of

the issue, is fatal to the teacher’s authority and influence. “Ask me

that again, to-morrow morning,” is the phrase with which a conscientious

teacher often meets such a contingency. And then how a fagged brain is

tormented that evening, how the few books available (and they are likely

to be a very few if there is no public library at hand) are searched in

vain! That is not all. If it be true that the teacher is the most

diligent, yet always the least satisfied, of all the teacher’s pupils,

it is equally true that many of the most puzzling questions with which

the teacher is confronted arise in the teacher’s own mind.

[Sidenote: Answers to All Questions]

The question-answering power of the Britannica is therefore of cardinal

importance to the teacher, and is to be considered not only in

connection with the use of the work for reference, but also in the

selection of such courses of reading as may be expected to supply

information of the kind that questions most often demand. And this

question-answering power lies in three characteristics of the work, and

may be measured by the extent to which the three are found in it: broad

scope, unimpeachable authority and convenient arrangement. Its scope

covers the whole range of human knowledge, everything that mankind has

achieved, attempted, believed or studied. Its authority is doubly

vouchsafed. The fact that the Britannica is published by the University

of Cambridge (England), one of the world’s oldest and most famous seats

of learning, in itself gives such a guarantee as no other Encyclopaedia

has ever offered, and the assurance thus given may be regarded as

showing, chiefly, that there are no errors of omission, for against the

existence of the errors of commission there is a further guarantee. The

articles are signed by 1,500 contributors, including the foremost

specialists in every department of knowledge. Among this army of

collaborators, chosen from twenty countries, there are no less than 704

members of the staffs of 146 universities and colleges. This means that

by means of the Britannica the youngest teacher in the most isolated

village is brought into stimulating contact with the great leaders of

the teaching profession. Its arrangement gives it the advantages of a

universal library, providing the varied courses of reading outlined in

this Guide, and those also of a work of reference which yields an

immediate answer to every conceivable question. The index of 500,000

entries instantly leads the enquirer to any item of information in the

40,000 articles. No teacher could hope to form, in the course of a

lifetime, a collection of separate books which would contain anywhere

near as much information.

[Sidenote: A Library of Text-Books]

In another relation, the Britannica is of daily service to anyone

engaged in educational work. It has already been remarked that the

teacher needs a “factor of safety,” a reserve of knowledge beyond that

which is directly called for in the ordinary routine of the class room.

But in the very course of that routine, there is also a need for

co-ordinated knowledge, presented in a form available for use in

teaching, of a more advanced kind than that in the text-books with which

pupils are provided. And the Britannica is, in itself, a vast collection

of text-books.

Professor Shotwell, of Columbia University, recently wrote to the

publishers a letter in which he said: “I shall use the articles in the

Encyclopaedia Britannica which deal with industrial processes as a

substitute for a text-book in one of my courses in Social and Industrial

History and have especially in mind the splendid treatment of the cotton

industry by Professor S. J. Chapman and others.” A large number of

Britannica articles have, by permission, been reprinted, word for word,

for use as text-books; and it is impossible to say how many have been

paraphrased, and, in a form less clear and vivid than the originals,

similarly employed. The writers of the Britannica have, among them, done

so large a share of the world’s recent work in research and criticism,

that no one who is engaged in writing a text-book or in preparing a

course of lectures should fail to use the work as a check to test the

completeness and the accuracy of independent investigation.

Fortunately, the system of monthly payments has enabled teachers to

purchase the Britannica to an extent which, in view of their limited

resources, is a striking evidence of their earnest desire to perfect

their professional equipment. In some cases two and even three teachers

have combined their efforts in order that they might jointly possess the

work. But whatever may be the difficulties to be overcome, it is certain

that the Britannica is, for the teacher, an instrument as directly

productive as a technical library is for a doctor or a lawyer.

A professor in an eastern college wrote to the publishers: “It has

become ‘the collection of books’ which Carlyle might term ‘the true

university’”; and the practical head of a business school in

Pennsylvania says: “By its purchase, I have secured access to a

university education.” A well known professor of German calls it “a

_Hausschatz_ of amazing richness and variety,” and adds: “I hope you

will not be sued at law for an attempt to monopolize the market for

profitable and entertaining literature.” The president of a southern

university wrote: “It is the first book to consult, the one book to own,

if you can own but one.” And a Harvard professor says: “I have been

particularly interested in some of the recent phases of European

history. Concerning some movements, about which it is as yet extremely

difficult to find material in books, I have found the Encyclopaedia most

useful.” A teacher in a theological seminary exclaims: “What a

university of solid training it would be for a young student, if he

would spend an hour each day reading the work, volume by volume, and

including all the articles except those of a technical nature belonging

to other departments than his own!”

This is what teachers have said of the value to them of the

Encyclopaedia Britannica. Specialists in school-hygiene and school

librarians have also noted the advantage of the light, handy volumes

printed on India paper—one weighs no more than two monthly magazines—,

which may be easily held at the proper angle for eye-focus on a large

page.

The teacher will find in this Guide valuable suggestions about

particular subjects which he may wish to teach or study,—such as

history, literature, language and biology. In this chapter we suggest a

general course.

[Sidenote: The Theory of Education]

Let him begin with the article EDUCATION (Vol. 8, p. 951), which is the

equivalent in length of 120 pages of the size and type of this Guide,

and of which the first part is by James Welton, professor of education

in the University of Leeds and author of _Logical Bases of Education_,

etc., the sections on national systems by G. B. M. Coore, assistant

secretary of the London Board of Education, and that on the United

States by Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University. This

valuable article begins with a discussion of the meaning of the term

“Education,” excludes John Stuart Mill’s extension to everything which

“helps to shape the human being,” and narrows the meaning to definitely

personal work,—the true “working” definition for the practical teacher.

The section on educational theory might equally well be styled a sketch

of the history of education and will prove valuable to the teacher

preparing for a licence-examination in this subject or for a normal

training course. It discusses old Greek education with special attention

to Spartan practice, Plato’s theory and Aristotle’s, and the gradual

change from the point of view of the city-state to Hellenistic

cosmopolitanism. The older Roman education, practical and given by

father to son, is contrasted with the later Hellenized training, largely

by Greek slaves, largely rhetorical and largely summed up in

Quintilian’s _Institutio_. The contest between the pagan system and

Christianity is shown to have culminated in monasticism; and barbarian

inroads stifled classical culture until the Carolingian revival under

Alcuin in the 8th century and the scholastic revival (11th to 13th

centuries) of Abelard, Aquinas and Arabic workings over of Aristotle.

Scholastic education is considered especially in relation to the first

great European universities and the schools of the Dominicans,

Franciscans and Brethren of the Common Life, and in contrast to

chivalry, the education of feudalism. The Renaissance is treated at

greater length, and this is followed by sections on the influence of the

Reformation on education, and the consequent growth of Jesuit schools.

The keynote of the story thereafter is reform,—the movement away from

the classics, toward natural science, and, especially after the French

Revolution, by means of new methods and theories, notably those of

Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel and Herbart.

The remainder of the article EDUCATION deals with national systems of

education: French, German, Swiss, Belgian, Dutch, Scotch, Irish,

English, Welsh and American, with an excellent bibliography. These, and

other, national systems are also treated from another point of view in

the articles on the separate countries.

[Sidenote: Articles on Great Schools]

The article EDUCATION should naturally be followed by a study of the

article UNIVERSITIES (Vol. 27, p. 748—about 100 pages, if printed in the

style of this Guide) by James Bass Mullinger (author of the _History of

Cambridge_, _The Schools of Charles the Great_, etc.) and, for American

universities, by Daniel Coit Gilman, late president of Johns Hopkins

University; and by a reading of articles on the great universities, as

for instance, Oxford, Cambridge, Aberdeen, Glasgow, St. Andrews, Dublin,

Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Michigan,

Wisconsin, California, Leland Stanford, Jr., etc. The student should

then turn to the article SCHOOLS (Vol. 24, p. 359; equivalent to about

40 pages of this Guide) by Arthur Francis Leach, author of _English

Schools at the Reformation_, who gives a summary of what is known of

Greek, Roman and English schools.

Then,—to supplement these general articles,—he should read—

On _Greek_ education:

PLATO (Vol. 21, p. 808), especially p. 812 (on _Meno_) and 818 (on the

_Republic_).

ARISTOTLE (Vol. 2, p. 501).

SPARTA (Vol. 25, p. 609, particularly p. 611).

On _Roman_ education:

CATO (Vol. 5, p. 535).

QUINTILIAN (Vol. 22, p. 761).

On _early Christian_ education:

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA (Vol. 6, p. 487, particularly p. 488, on the

_Paedagogus_).

AUGUSTINE (Vol. 2, p. 907) and JEROME (Vol. 15, p. 326), with especial

attention to their early pagan education and their attitude toward it

as Christians.

AMBROSE (Vol. 1, p. 798).

MARTIANUS CAPELLA (Vol. 5, p. 249).

BOETIUS (Vol. 4, p. 116).

CASSIODORUS (Vol. 5, p. 459).

ISIDORE (Vol. 14, p. 871).

ST. GREGORY (Vol. 12, p. 566).

BEDE (Vol. 3, p. 615).

MONASTICISM (Vol. 18, p. 687).

On the _Carolingian revival_:

ALCUIN (Vol. 1, p. 529).

ANGILBERT (Vol. 2, p. 9).

CHARLEMAGNE (Vol. 5, p. 891, especially p. 894).

FRANCE (Vol. 10, p. 810).

On the _Scholastic revival_:

SCHOLASTICISM (Vol. 24, p. 346).

ABELARD (Vol. 1, p. 40).

JOHN OF SALISBURY (Vol. 15, p. 449).

ALBERTUS MAGNUS (Vol 1, p. 504).

GROSSETESTE (Vol. 12, p. 617).

THOMAS AQUINAS (Vol. 2, p. 250).

ROGER BACON (Vol. 3, p. 153).

On the _Renaissance_:

RENAISSANCE (Vol. 23, p. 83).

DANTE (Vol. 7, p. 810).

PETRARCH (Vol. 21, p. 310).

BOCCACIO (Vol. 4, p. 102).

MANUEL CHRYSOLARAS (Vol. 6, p. 320).

MANUTIUS (Vol. 17, p. 624).

THOMAS MORE (Vol. 18, p. 822).

ERASMUS (Vol. 9, p. 727).

JOHN COLET (Vol. 6, p. 681).

THOMAS LINACRE (Vol. 16, p. 701).

On the _Reformation period and Counter-Reformation_:

REFORMATION (Vol. 23, p. 4).

MELANCTHON (Vol. 18, p. 88).

LUTHER (Vol. 17, p. 133).

TROTZENDORFF (Vol. 27, p. 308).

REUCHLIN (Vol. 23, p. 204).

ASCHAM (Vol. 2, p. 720).

RABELAIS (Vol. 22, p. 769).

JESUITS (Vol. 15, p. 337), especially p. 342.

LA SALLE (Vol. 16, p. 231).

On the _Modern period_:

COMENIUS (Vol. 6, p. 759).

ROUSSEAU (Vol. 23, p. 775).

VOLTAIRE (Vol. 28, p. 199).

PESTALOZZI (Vol. 21, p. 284).

FROEBEL (Vol. 11, p. 238).

HERBART (Vol. 13, p. 335).

WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT (Vol. 13, p. 875).

ANDREW BELL (Vol. 3, p. 684).

JOSEPH LANCASTER (Vol. 16, p. 147).

SIR JOHN FITCH (Vol. 10, p. 438).

JAMES BLAIR (Vol. 4, p. 34).

T. H. GALLAUDET (Vol. 11, p. 416).

F. A. P. BARNARD (Vol. 3, p. 409).

HENRY BARNARD (Vol. 3, p. 410).

HORACE MANN (Vol. 17, p. 587).

MARK HOPKINS (Vol. 13, p. 684).

WILLIAM T. HARRIS (Vol. 13, p. 21).

JUSTIN S. MORRILL (Vol. 18, p. 869).

ALEXANDER MELVILLE BELL (Vol. 3, p. 684).

S. C. ARMSTRONG (Vol. 2, p. 591).

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON (Vol. 28, p. 344).

CO-EDUCATION (Vol. 6, p. 637).

BLINDNESS (Vol. 4, p. 66).

DEAF AND DUMB (Vol. 7, p. 887).

INFANT SCHOOLS (Vol. 14, p. 533).

KINDERGARTEN (Vol. 15, p. 802).

MUSEUMS OF ART (Vol. 19, p. 60).

MUSEUMS OF SCIENCE (Vol. 19, p. 64).

POLYTECHNIC (Vol. 22, p. 38).

TECHNICAL EDUCATION (Vol. 26, p. 487), an elaborate article, about 40

pages in the form of this Guide, by Sir Philip Magnus, author of

_Industrial Education_, member of the Royal Commission on technical

instruction (1881–1884) and, in 1907, president of the education

section of the British Association.

[Sidenote: The Study of Psychology]

Of equal importance with this course on the history of education, for

the student taking the licence-examination or for a teacher taking an

examination for a higher grade licence or a principalship, is a course

in Psychology in the Britannica. This will be found largely in the great

article on PSYCHOLOGY (Vol. 22, p. 547; equivalent in length to 200

pages of this Guide) by James Ward. The systematic treatment of the

subject in this article is particularly valuable to the teacher, whether

the object desired is to review the entire subject, sharpening one’s

impressions from a longer course of reading; to get a general grounding

in the subject—for which a careful study of this one article will

suffice; or to make one’s self more certain of his comprehension of any

part of the subject. It is not practicable to give an outline of this

article here, but a few of its special topics are listed below:

General analysis of the subject

Attention

Theory of presentations

Sensation

Perception

Imagination or Ideation

Mental Association

Reminiscence and Expectation

Experimental Investigations on Memory and Association

Feeling

Emotion and Emotional Action

Intellection

Self-Consciousness

Relation of Body and Mind

Comparative Psychology

Besides the general article with its systematic summary of the subject,

the Britannica contains many briefer articles on special topics, so that

the teacher will find not only an excellent text-book of the subject in

Prof. Ward’s article, but also an elaborate dictionary or encyclopaedia

of psychological terms or topics. Among the topics treated in this

“Dictionary of Psychology” are:

AFFECTION

APPERCEPTION

ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS

ATTENTION